by Ian Bushell
The Wednesday work party was slightly rained on but on the whole we were in a window of better weather. The business of the day was installing a new seat by the pond.
We met up with Ali in the car park and loaded our kit into the Land Rover – Ali had collected the flat pack seat and the tools etc from the depot at Riverway the previous afternoon – and we took it down to the bottom of Kestrel field by the pond.
Clive had brought his power tools and a box of screws so the first task for Jim, Pete and myself was to assemble the seat. It is some years since we put the last ones in and it took a while to sort out the bits.
That done, it was digging the holes for the legs – made easy by all the wet weather we have had – then setting the seat to the right height, level and upright. Finally we added the postcrete round the legs, watered it in, and left it to set while we tidied up.
Meanwhile Clive, Phil and Frank using the hedge trimmers and loppers were reducing and tidying up the hedge between the hard path and pond. It is now looking a lot better and we can see over the top and into the pond. A lot of the off-cuts were used to bolster up the dead hedging from last week’s working party.
Next week, weather permitting, we intend to tackle the overhanging Brambles and Blackthorn in the area of Puddle Corner.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 
Thank you for everything you do